In Alexandria, in Cairo, in the villages of the Nile Delta, a favorite
breakfast dish is faṭayr (pronounced fa-TAIR) or faṭīr (pronounced fa-TEER). A faṭīr is a fluffy pan-cooked
pastry, a cross between a puff pastry beignet and a crÍpe sometimes served as a
savory as well as a sweet. The pastry is fluffy, and laminated as modern bakers
call it, because the dough is folded upon itself. A delicious savory faṭīr is faṭīr biíl-sakhīna, there being two varieties of this dish; in the first the
pastry is covered with a sauce made of vegetables cooked in vinegar and garlic
and the second is a sauce made with chicken poached with onions and water
buffalo samna (clarified butter). A wonderful sweet faṭīr can be made with
apricot preserves and confectioner's sugar, as well as fresh fruit such as
bananas. Faṭīr, derived from the word meaning "to break the fast, to breakfast,"
is, in fact, often eaten at breakfast.